Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
Getting Started
Framework #1: Adopting The Mindset Of A Digital Writer
Rapid-fire Feedback Loops
Build Your Audience As You Write Online
"Scaling Yourself"
Clarifying Your Thoughts
Building A Library Of Content (That Pays Dividends)
Introduction
There are two types of writers in the world today.
The first are legacy writers. These are people who still believe in the days of
Hemingway, Faulkner, Dostoevsky, and Bukowski (among others). To become a
writer, they believe, you must wear a chapeau, smoke a corn cob pipe, stare out the
window and wait for inspiration to strike. Better yet, you must detach yourself from the
world, find a cabin in the woods (God forbid it has Internet), and dedicate the next 10
years of your life to writing the next Great American Novel. And if you die doing it, even
better. You have lived, and suffered, the life of a true "writer."
We think that's a bunch of bologna.
The second are Digital Writers. These are people who, in the age of the Internet, have
realized the inefficiencies that kept so many talented writers from being heard 30, 40,
50, 100+ years ago. Digital Writers don't run away from life and seek refuge in a cabin—
they incorporate their writing into their daily lives. Digital Writers don't write by
themselves (hiding away in their apartment)—they Practice In Public using social
publishing platforms like Twitter, Quora, Medium, etc. Digital Writers don't guess what
readers want to read about—they gather data, learn what works in real time, and iterate
on a daily basis.
We believe there has never been a better time in human history to be a writer.
As long as you're a Digital Writer.
Getting Started
Whether you are a legacy writer looking to transport yourself into the future and become
a Digital Writer, or you understand the benefits of writing online but are brand new to
Perfectionism: Ah, a writer's favorite excuse. "It's not ready yet." OK, when will it
be ready, then? One of the biggest obstacles writers need to overcome early on is
realizing that "perfect" is an unreasonable milestone. More importantly, aiming for
"perfect" slows you down—so much so, that other writers who aren't aiming for
perfect end up zooming right by you. (Here, we encourage writers to create "junk,"
and we'll explain what that means a bit later.)
Generating ideas: A lot of writers have this fear that someone is going to "steal
their ideas." But writers who are afraid of other writers stealing their ideas are afraid
because they don't know how to create more ideas. Said differently: they value the
ideas they have SO MUCH because they don't have the skill of creating more ideas
on command. Well, that's why we created an Endless Idea Generator for writers to
use anytime they feel stuck. (We still use the Endless Idea Generator every single
day with our own writing. Why? Because it works.)
Choosing a platform: Where's the best place to write online? The honest answer
to this question is: anywhere except your own blog. Why? Because your own blog
doesn't have a distribution flywheel. No one knows it exists, and you are 100%
responsible for driving traffic there yourself. Instead, you want to write in social
publishing environments like Twitter, Quora, Medium. Or, if you want to set up a
Social Blog, we encourage you to use Typeshare (so you get the benefits of both a
personal blog and social distribution). If you want more insight into why starting with
a blog is NOT the best place to begin writing online, grab a copy of Nicolas
Cole's, The Art & Business of Online Writing.
Finding time to write: And of course, one of the biggest reasons writers don't write
is because they "don't have time." Well, here's the thing—not just about writing, but
about anything in life: when it comes to making progress on things that are
important to us, you don't "find" time. You make time. We call these hours
your Sacred Hours, and encourage writers to make time where they are a) most
likely to be productive, but b) least likely to be disturbed by the outside world. Your
Sacred Hours might be early in the morning, at lunch, or at night. But it's on you to
pinpoint them, and then protect them.
If you resonate with any of the above, don't worry. You're not alone. In fact, you are part
of the majority. These are the issues keeping MOST people from clarifying their
thoughts, writing them down, and hitting publish. The good news is, they're all easy to
fix—once you learn a few basic frameworks for writing in the digital age.
The question is, where are you in your journey?
1. Sitting On The Dock
Have you wanted to start writing online, but aren't sure the first step to take? Are
you overwhelmed with the number of different platforms, topics, and strategies out there
for writing online?
2. Sailing A Boat With A Leak
Have you already started writing online, but now feel stuck? Are you hacking away
at blog posts, publishing into the void, never gaining any traction?
3. Afraid To Go Sailing!
"Scaling Yourself"
Writing online is the most effective way to scale who you are as a human being.
Think about how many times you meet up with someone for coffee and repeat the same
stories, the same life details. Think about how many times you jump on a call with
someone (a friend of a friend, or a networking opportunity) and give them the same 30-
second background info. Think about how many times you manually explain to people—
on the phone, on Zoom, over lunch or dinner—aspects of who you are, your past, your
experience, how you think, how you solve problems, etc.
Every time you write and publish one of those stories or insights online, what you're
really doing is "scaling yourself."
You're taking a detail of your life you would otherwise have to manually explain to
someone in conversation and making it accessible for anyone and everyone online.
The result?
You are giving people a fundamentally different understanding of who you are, how you
think, and how you became "you," from the very beginning. The more people who know
things about you (to whatever degree you feel comfortable sharing), the more
opportunities will come your way. The more people will say, "Wow, I didn't know you did
Repeat
As a result, Digital Writers are usually the ones who go from never having
written anything online before to suddenly accumulating hundreds of thousands, even
millions of views—and more importantly, turning those views and proven content
buckets into paid products, newsletters, services, and businesses. Why? Because
they're the ones with the data. They don't have to guess what readers want. The data is
telling them, objectively, "When you write about X, readers fall off. But when you write
about Y, readers go crazy. Do more of Y, and less of X." They treat their writing like a
science experiment.
It's no longer sufficient to just say, "Someone will spot my genius," and go on writing by
yourself, alone in your apartment.
If you are a writer in the digital age, you are an entrepreneur, and your writing is a
startup.
Which means you need to get your product out in front of customers, gather feedback,
and iterate.
Niche Audience: Then, under the umbrella of "Productivity" you would pick a niche
to explore. Maybe it's "Productivity Hacks For New Moms Trying To Find Work-Life
Balance" or "How To Be A Productive Manager In A Large Organization." These
clarified audiences are, by definition, "smaller" than your big General audience—
and that's a good thing. Your Niche audience should be smaller, more specific, and
hyper-targeted to a certain type of reader.
Now, of course, everyone's big question right out the gate here is:
"Well what if I don't know who my audience is? What if I can't pick a niche? What if I
don't want to pick a niche?"
That's fine.
The whole idea of the Endless Idea Generator is to create a system for endless
ideation.
Why?
Because creating systems to ease (and strengthen) the repetition of content creation is
how you remain consistent for years into the future. It’s very difficult to come up with
“new ideas” on the fly, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after
year. It’s even harder when you feel like, once you’ve written about a topic, you can
never write about it again.
This simply isn’t true.
It just means you don’t have a system for turning one idea into ten ideas into one
hundred ideas into a thousand ideas.
Which is exactly what The Endless Idea Generator is all about.
Let’s dive in.
V4: “I want to write about investing money in your 20s so you can buy your
first rental property in your 30s.”
V4: “I want to write about teaching online to scale knowledge so you can have
a bigger impact, work less, and exponentially increase earnings.”
The goal here is to get so specific that you feel like you actually can’t get anymore
specific. You’ve made it abundantly clear who (exactly) this piece is for, and more
importantly, who it ISN’T for. A lot of writers shy away from this level of specificity. Don’t
be one of them.
You don’t need to be Oprah or Tony Robbins for people to see you as a credible source
of information.
A good way of thinking about credibility is: imagine you are at a dinner party. Someone
comes up to you and starts telling you about something random, like fly fishing.
Eventually, you are going to ask, “How do you know that?” At which point they are going
to give you one of three answers:
“I’ve been fly fishing since I was in middle school. I actually won a fly fishing
competition when I was in college.” (They’re an expert.)
“My dad loves fly fishing and I’ve had to listen to him talk about it for years.” (Their
dad is the expert, and they’re curating their dad’s insight.)
“Honestly? I’m just obsessed with watching these fly fishing shows on Netflix.
They’re so fascinating.” (They’re just speaking from personal experience.)
That’s really all credibility is, and can be communicated in a single sentence.
Here is another example:
Expert: “I am Roger Ebert and Don’t Look Up was the best movie of 2021.”
Curating Experts: “According to Roger Ebert & 9 other famous movie critics, Don’t
Look Up was the best movie of 2021.”
Personal Experience: “I’m no Roger Ebert but I have watched over 900 Netflix
movies and shows, and I think Don’t Look Up was the best movie of 2021.”
When most writers sit down to write, they usually say to themselves, "I want to write
about X."
Well, X is usually a pretty broad topic. And there are lots of different ways of
approaching X.
For example, let's say you sit down and say, "I want to write about achieving financial
freedom." OK, well that's a pretty big topic—so how do you want to slice the pie? Do
you want to explain to readers how they can start saving & investing money to achieve
financial freedom (actionable)? Did you just read a study about financial freedom in the
United States and do you want to explain what the numbers mean for people who are
afraid they don't have enough money saved up for retirement (analytical)? Did you
overcome a mountain of debt to become financially free yourself, and do you want to
motivate others to do the same (aspirational)? Or do you want to explain to readers
why the root cause of financial illiteracy, and why so many people struggle to achieve
financial freedom, is because of the emotional relationship they have with
money (anthropological)?
The idea here isn't to write about one topic, one time. The idea is to take whatever you
want to write about and write about it over and over again using different frameworks:
you should write about it through an actionable lens, an analytical lens, an aspirational
lens, and an anthropological lens (because each piece will yield a different result).
Then, as you write and publish each kind, you will start to learn which ones readers
enjoy the most. You'll learn (objectively through data), "Oh, when I write actionable
pieces about how to achieve financial freedom, readers love that. But when I try to write
aspirational pieces, readers don't seem to engage with that content very much."
This is how you start growing exponentially as a Digital Writer.
The key here is to structure your piece in a way where all the main points &
subheadings follow the same pattern. What you don't want to do is write a "How To"
piece, but then have your first main point be a "Step," and your second main point be a
"lesson," and your third main point be a "mistake," etc. This makes it very hard for
readers to know what they're reading and follow your train of thought. (Now, you can
combine Steps, Mistakes, Lessons, etc., in each section, but how you ORGANIZE the
piece should all follow the same overarching pattern.)
The other reason we encourage writers to make this decision at the beginning (before
you even start writing) is because it will give you a skeleton to fill in.
[Actionable + How To + I'm The Expert] I Just Quit My 9-5 And Doubled My
Monthly Earnings. Here Are 5 Steps You Can Take To Do The Same
[Analytical + How To + Curated Experts] A New Study Shows Millennials Are The
Poorest Generation. Here's The Advice The 10 Biggest Financial Planners
Gave About Saving For Retirement
Every single piece of writing, in some way or another, is answering a question for the
reader. That's why they clicked in the first place—"I want to know the answer."
So, if your Atomic Essay or article or long-form blog post or book is answering a big,
overarching, universal question ("How do I make more money?"), you are going to have
Think of General & Niche audiences as a dial, and in everything you write, you are
choosing how far you'd like to twist the dial in either direction.
For example, let's say you want to write actionable pieces about how to become a better
designer.
These 4 Drawing Exercises Won't Just Make You A Better Designer—They'll Help
You See The World More Clearly
Each one of these headlines is attracting more than just designers. You might be a car
fanatic who wants to see beautiful, timeless car designs. Or you might be an architect
who wants to learn how to better utilize light. Or you might be an art student who has no
idea what to do as a career long-term. The point is, your content is not singularly
focused on a Niche, but still has to do with the general category of "design." As a result,
wider audiences are able to get introduced to your work.
Now, let's flip it.
Here are a few ways to take these same exact headline ideas and rewrite them through
a more "niche" lens—let's say "building a career as a designer."
If You Practice These 4 Drawing Exercises Every Morning, You Will Have No
Problem Getting Hired As A Designer Anywhere
Why Every Designer Should Master How Light Can Change The Mood Of A Room:
7 Timeless Examples
All of a sudden, the same "ideas" become much more niche, much more targeted to a
specific type of reader, and in many ways exclude the general audiences you're likely to
attract in the first set of headlines. This is a good thing.
One of the biggest mistakes writers make is thinking they need to "create something for
everyone." In reality, creating something for everyone means making something for no
one. You do not want to try to appeal to EVERY type of reader in the world. Instead,
your goal is to use specificity to force a binary decision: either this piece is exactly what
the reader is looking for, or it's not. And the more binary you can make that decision, the
more likely you are to attract the readers you want, and repel the ones you don't.
Name the outcome: Sticking with the above example, if "How To Make More
Money" is General, then a different Niche version might be, "How To Make More
Money So You Can Buy Your First House." Or, even more Niche: "How To Make
More Money So You Can Build A Music Studio In Your Backyard." Naming the
outcome is another way of very clearly telling readers WHO this is for and who
this isn't for.
Name the process: If the audience is who you're writing for, and the outcome is
what the audience gets in return, then there's another opportunity for specificity
here by naming the process by which that outcome gets unlocked. For example,
"How To Make More Money As A Writer Without Leaving Your Couch." Or, "How To
Make More Money As A Writer Ghostwriting For CEOs." Naming the process gives
readers another point of context, helping them decide whether this is something
they'd be interested in reading or not.
WHY should they read it? (What are you PROMISING, and what do they get in
exchange?)
Instead, what many writers (both beginner and advanced) do is they write headlines that
attempt to be "mysterious" or "creative" (whatever that means), but in no way answer
these questions for the reader. As a result, headlines look something like this:
"A Forgotten Moon"
"The Trees"
"Don't You?"
And so on.
What these writers fail to realize is these types of headlines are actually quite selfish.
They expect the reader to adjust to the writer, to give the writer their attention without
knowing what they're going to get in return.
Each article title, minimalist as it might be, is still hinting at a) WHO this is for, b) WHAT
this is about, and c) WHY you should read it.
So, in order to learn how to do this on your own, we encourage writers to start with
longer, more descriptive headlines. Answer these 3 questions directly. And then, over
time, whittle your headlines down into your own distinct style (while still answering these
questions for the reader).
Let's walk through how to write headlines readers can't help but click on.
How Many? All "listicle" articles and essays start with a number. 6 Ways... 7
Reasons... 8 Brutal Truths... 9 Heartbreaking Movies... That's because readers love
containers, and numbers/lists make it easy for a reader to understand exactly what
they're "getting" in return for their time spent reading. Words on a page are a
"product," and so the clearer the container (the "box" your words arrive in), the more
likely readers are to be excited to open it up. (If an article or essay doesn't have a
WHO? Not every headline has to have a WHO, but when you are writing for a Niche
there are benefits to naming the audience directly. "How To Start Your First Side
Hustle As A College Student." The WHO here would be "College Students." And if
you aren't a college student, you probably aren't going to click and read this piece.
(Writing that aims to attract General audiences tends to not name any audience
directly—because the goal is to attract lots of different types of audiences, not just
one. Whereas writing that aims to engage with a Niche audience tends to mention
that niche audience directly.)
FEEL: Another crucial piece in your headline is how you want the reader to FEEL
about the topic. For example, "I Just Ate An Entire Barrel Of Ice Cream" doesn't
really tell the reader how you want them to FEEL. Should they be happy for you?
Sad? Should they feel your shame? Or should they feel your love and self-
acceptance? Notice how dramatically different this headline becomes when we tell
the reader how to FEEL: "I Just Ate An Entire Barrel Of Ice Cream. Here's What I
Learned About Loving Myself Through My Mistakes."
Outcome/The PROMISE: The final piece of your headline is what the reader gets
in exchange for reading. Your headline is a proposal to readers trying to "hook" their
attention and convince them this thing you've written is worth their time. So, what do
they get in return? "7 Ways To Cook Healthy Lunches" is a good headline. But "7
Ways To Cook Healthy Lunches, Lose Weight, And Give Up Fast Food Once And
For All" is way better. The end of your headline is your PROMISE, and it's essential
for readers to understand what they're going to learn, feel, and/or receive as a result
of the 30 seconds or 3 minutes they spend reading your writing.
BIG Numbers: "3,000 People Just Filed For Unemployment In This Small Town In
Arkansas. Here's Why"
Dollar Signs: "$400 Million Is How Much You Need To Make In Order To Afford
This Insane Mansion In Malibu"
Credible Names: "Will Smith's Advice On How To Live A Fulfilling Life Will Change
The Way You See The World Forever"
"This Just Happened": "Michael Jordan Just Gave A Press Conference And NBA
Executives Are Furious"
Things That Shouldn't Go Together: "7 Things KFC And Miley Cyrus Have In
Common"
For The Industry: "3 Things All Successful Small Business Owners Do To Stay
Profitable"
Topic Within The Topic: "7 Ways The Real Estate Industry Is Changing (And How
You Should Be Investing Your Money)"
For example, if you write an article or essay titled, "The 7 Secrets To Becoming A
Millionaire," and you give readers actionable steps they can take to become a
millionaire themselves, that's great. But what makes that essay or article 10x more
memorable is if you pair that actionable advice with a personal story (even if it's only a
few sentences in the introduction): "When I was 19 years old, I was broke as broke
could be. I was living with my mom, who was unemployed. My dad had left when I was
a kid. And I grew up on food stamps. Fast-forward to today, I just turned 30 years old
and have a little more than $1,000,000 in liquid assets. The path I took to becoming a
millionaire is something anyone can do. Which is why I want to share the steps I took
with you. My goal is to shorten your own growth curve so that you can get out of
whatever bad situation you're in, become a millionaire, and achieve financial freedom
yourself."
Those few sentences immediately make the content more relatable, more trustworthy,
and more memorable. They also act as a doorway for readers to connect directly with
Skimmability = Readability
If your online writing isn't skimmable, it's not readable.
For legacy writers and "purists," this is a hard pill to swallow. Legacy writers want to
believe they are the one who is important (not the reader), and that readers should
Headline: What is this piece about? Who is it for? What will the reader get in
exchange for reading through to the end? AND, why should they trust you (what's
your credibility)?
Introduction: (Repeat the information from the headline with slightly more detail.)
What is this piece about? Who is it for? What will the reader get in exchange for
reading through to the end? AND, why should they trust you (what's your
credibility)?
Main Points: What "proven approach" are you using to organize this piece? (Is this
piece organized by Steps, Lessons, Mistakes, Tips, etc.?) How many do you plan
on including? 3 Steps? 4 Lessons? 5 Mistakes?
Conclusion: What's the final takeaway? What do you want readers to walk away
with after reading this piece? What's the morale of the story?
Wheels: Big headings (H1) that signify the beginning of a new overarching section.
Since most essays and articles online fall between the 300-800 word range, you usually
don't need to use both Headings & smaller subheads (because there's only so much
room). For example, in the "Prep The Page" example above, each "reason" in the article
is listed out using a heading. In this case, it really doesn't matter if your headings are big
(H1) or smaller (H2 or H3) because they are all fulfilling the same purpose: separating
ideas.
However, in longer-form blog posts and ultimate guides (like this piece here), it makes
sense to use both to make sure readers are following your train of thought. Each major
section would open with a big heading (H1), signifying the purpose of this overarching
section. And then each sub-section within would be separated by subheads (H2 or H3),
signifying where one idea stops and the next idea begins.
Using headings are an easy way to make your writing more "skimmable," and to also
make it easy for readers to scroll and find a section that hooks their attention. If they find
1/3/1
This first sentence is your opener.
This second sentence clarifies your opener. This third sentence reinforces the point
you're making with some sort of credibility or amplified description. And this fourth
sentence rounds out your argument, guiding the reader toward your conclusion.
This fifth sentence is your strong conclusion.
What makes this 1/3/1 sequence "work" is that the first sentence and the last sentence
act as bookends to the bulk of the content in the middle. These single-sentence lines
make the reader feel as though they've reached a checkpoint, which acts as a small
dopamine hit encouraging them to continue reading.
1/3/1 is an especially great framework for introductions and openers, but the truth is, it
can be used anytime, anywhere within your writing. In fact, you could write an entire
essay or article (or even book) using the 1/3/1 sequence and readers wouldn't realize
you were following a pattern. They would just think to themselves, "Wow, this thing flows
so well! It's so easy to read."
Here's an example of the 1/3/1 sequence in action:
1/2/5/2/1
Now, if you want to start getting fancy with things, you can expand the middle of your
sequence to add even more dynamics into your writing.
The key here is to build up, and then build back down. In music, this would be called
creating a "crescendo" (gradually increasing in loudness) and then creating a
"decrescendo" (gradually decreasing in loudness). Notice again how the first sentence
and the last sentence remains short, whereas the middle is slowly building.
1/3/1 + 1/3/1
With any of these writing rhythm sequences, you can then start to copy/paste them on
top of each other, creating "stacks."
Here's how it works:
This first sentence is your opener.
This second sentence clarifies your opener. This third sentence reinforces the point
you're making with some sort of credibility or amplified description. And this fourth
sentence rounds out your argument, guiding the reader toward your conclusion.
2/2/2
5/5/5
Rate Of Revelation
The final formatting piece we encourage writers to think about in Ship 30 for 30 is what
we like to call Rate of Revelation.
This is how quickly you are revealing new information to the reader.
On the Internet, writing that optimizes for SPEED tends to be the writing that gets the
most traction. If you notice, the essays or articles or Twitter threads that go viral aren't
the ones that spend 7 paragraphs describing the details on a doorknob. Readers don't
have the patience for that. Instead, readers want every single sentence to push the
story or point forward.
For example, here's what a SLOW Rate of Revelation might look like:
When it comes to building a daily writing habit, the hardest thing for most writers is
remembering the importance of just sitting down and writing. It can be difficult to get
yourself to write, but that’s part of the name of the game. And in moments you can’t
write, you have to remember that all writers go through this—it’s just part of the craft.
Now, here's what a FAST Rate of Revelation looks like:
When it comes to building a daily writing habit, there are three things that usually get in
a writer’s way. First, they over-edit. Second, they talk themselves out of the idea (“This
will never work. I’m better off just doing laundry.”) And third, their laptop runs out of
battery at the coffee shop (this happens more often than you might think).
Notice how in the second example, every single sentence is moving the idea forward.
A good rule of thumb here is to ask yourself, "Am I continuing to describe and repeat
something I already said? Or am I moving on and saying something new?"
Aim for the latter.
Wake up early
Drink coffee
Stretch
Meditate
Journal
And so on.
When we do this exercise (usually with 150+ Shippers), what immediately starts to
happen is that people's answers begin to overlap. 27 people all say, "Journal." 24
people all say, "Stretch." 35 people all say, "Meditate." And so on.
As a result, everyone's answers "sound the same."
The most common question we hear from writers is, “What do I do if I’m staring with
zero followers on Twitter?”
The reason we use Twitter as a publishing platform, and why we encourage writers not
to start writing on their own personal blog (at first) is because these social platforms
are designed to get your content in front of the right people. That’s how these social
algorithms work. It doesn’t matter if you have 1 Follower or 100,000 Followers—if the
algorithm sees people engaging with your content, it is going to serve it up to more and
more people. The number of followers you have is sort of irrelevant.
For example: here’s a Tweet Dickie wrote when he had around ~20,000 followers.
WHY should you read this? (What PROMISE are you making to the reader? What
do they get in return?)
Tell a story
Share a framework
Stories
Stories are, without question, the hardest content format to execute on Twitter.
First of all, it’s hard telling stories lots of people find interesting. Most of the time, the
stories that “go viral” on Twitter are curated stories of famous people, little-known
moments of success, unlikely outcomes in the public, etc. It’s much harder for a
personal story to go viral.
That said, regardless of what type of story you are telling, your lead-in Tweet should be
structured like this:
Frameworks
Another content format that performs best on Twitter is any kind of framework readers
would find valuable and applicable to their daily lives.
The vast majority of the time, framework-style Threads on Twitter aren’t original
frameworks, but curated frameworks from people readers want to be like.
For example:
Etc.
Actionable Takeaways
The final content format that performs best on Twitter is creating a list of actionable
takeaways with the purpose of achieving some sort of end goal.
For example:
12 Meditation Mantras That Will Connect You With Your Highest Self
And so on.
Formatting Matters
Regardless of what type of content format you choose (Story, Framework, Actionable
Takeaways), the formatting of the Thread itself should follow a few basic rules:
1. Give each Tweet its own “mini headline.” The first sentence of each Tweet is the
most important. If you are writing an “actionable takeaways” Thread, the first
sentence of each Tweet should be the actionable takeaway. This allows readers to
quickly scroll through your Thread, skim the mini-headlines, and then decide if they
want to dig deeper and read the entire thing straight through (remember:
skimmability = readability).
3. Play with the 1/3/1 framework to make your Tweets clean and presentable. The
1/3/1 writing rhythm is terrific for writing individual Tweets. The single-sentence
opener can act as your “mini-headline,” the three sentences in the middle can be
turned into a bulleted list, and the one-sentence closer acts as a strong conclusion.
The CTA
At the end of your Thread, there are a few things you can do to wrap up the experience
for readers.
The first is the CTA: Call To Action.
Your CTA should direct readers to more of your great content. If they just finished
reading a Thread about writing advice, consider linking them to your BEST Thread
The TL;DR
What you do
That’s it.
Going back to our “Clever vs. Clear” framework, a great bio is not about being funny, or
witty, or “punchy,” or cool. Your bio is, quite literally, the most important piece of real
estate you have on the Internet. And because social bios are short, it’s your job to get
the point across quickly, clearly, and efficiently.
And are you saying what the reader gets in exchange for following you?
Readers make snap judgements about whether or not you are someone worth reading,
listening to, and following based on your bio. They really don’t care whether you like
cats, or what your favorite show on Netflix is. The only question they’re asking
themselves is, “Am I interested in this type of person?” And the fastest, most effective
way to answer that question for readers is to make it very clear what you write about—
and, even better, what readers can expect to learn or experience in return.
What makes you credible? You’re a project manager at one of the fastest-growing
tech companies in history.
What does the reader get in exchange for following you? They will learn user
growth frameworks for SaaS companies.
3. Name & Claim what resonates so readers associate “that” with “you.”
4. Repeat.
This is how every great digital writer & creator treats their craft—actively using data and
audience feedback to determine what’s working, what’s not, and where they can
“create” a niche for themselves.
Which is exactly the process we have compressed into 30 days during Ship 30 for 30.
If you found this Ultimate Guide helpful, we can’t stress enough how much we are only
scratching the surface here. Ship 30 for 30 is a cohort-based masterclass in online
writing, and the entry point for anyone who wants to become a Digital Writer.
We hope to see you in the next cohort!